Exchange: Attention and Distraction

Attention and Distraction

What draws our attention? What doesn't? Why?

This ink drawing on paper has a black wash ground, with two figures drawn in opaque black ink. On the right, a comic figure, in only boxers and a pointed hat, dances. His right leg has been kicked through a television set that he holds with his right hand. Scissors fall from his left hand towards what looks like a two-slot toaster on the ground. A black, horned beast lurks in the background, holding a phone overhead that has two earpieces, attached together with no cradle. In the background, a headstone-shaped form silhouettes the dancing figure.<br /><br />
The drawing is signed and dated in ink (l.l.) "KOSTABI 1984".

Mark Kostabi
As Long as I Don't Have to Get Up Before 11:00
ink on paper
24 in x 18 in (60.96 cm x 45.72 cm)
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the Nation Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services

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This colorful print is broken up in to four panels, which are divided by a black border with white dashes and then surrounded by a red border, which includes designs in white. In the upper left panel is the image of a blue and yellow house. The upper right shows a television set sitting on a table alongside a glass of milk, a key ring, notepad, plate, and cell phone. In the lower left panel, the bust of a girl with blonde hair in pig-tail braids is standing in front of two houses, one traditional and one modern. The lower right panel depicts an orange, yellow, and red store labeled "Shop and Buy" with a parking lot out front. The artist's initals are included in the print (l.r.) in white on red "RG".

Rodney Alan Greenblat
Christina's World
screenprint on paper
48 in x 38 3/4 in (121.92 cm x 98.43 cm);48 in x 38 3/4 in (121.92 cm x 98.43 cm)
Gift of Jack A. and Noreen Rounick

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Doug Webb
Life Raft
serigraph on paper
37 3/16 in. x 29 15/16 in. ( 94.5 cm x 76 cm )
Gift of Jack A. and Noreen Rounick

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Elliott Erwitt
Florida, from "Master Prints Volume II"
1968 – 1985
gelatin silver print | paper
Gift of Mr. Clayton E. Wilhite
1987/1.253.5

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A color photograph of a group of children and a cat at a table. Each child engages with something in the room, which is in an organized disarray. Egg shells fall from the table to the floor, toys are strewn about, and an infant and cat sit in the middle of the table.

Julie Blackmon
Birds at Home
2007
inkjet pigment print | paper
Gift from the Collection of David S. Rosen MD, MPH
2013/2.103

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A photograph of ripples on the surface of a calm body of water. A circular pattern curves into the distance, a rocky wall visible in the background. The image is comprised of blue tones.

Pete Turner
Boat Wake
1966
inkjet pigment print | paper
Gift of Selma and Gerald Lotenberg
2004/2.131.4

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A boy and girl up against a car, girl looking at boy, boy looking straight ahead.

Patricia Richards
Caught Looking
1995
gelatin silver print | paper
Gift from the Collection of David S. Rosen MD, MPH
2013/2.136

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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
And still they don't go! (Y aun no se van!)
etching, burnished aquatint and burin on paper
12 in x 8 in (30.48 cm x 20.32 cm);8 1/4 in x 5 3/16 in (20.96 cm x 13.18 cm);8 1/2 in x 5 7/8 in (21.59 cm x 14.92 cm)
Gift of Kurt Delbanco in honor of Nicholas Delbanco, and partial purchase with the funds from the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund

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Image of a book lying open to a page featuring a painting of the crucified Christ. A newsclipping featuring a photo of an ash-covered body of a man lies on the book across the open page.

Joanne Leonard
Haiti Crucifixes (Earthquake Victim and Murdered Haitian Hero)
2010
inkjet print | paper
Gift of the artist
2016/2.146

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A large, dark tree looms over a field with neat rows of crops. A full moon hangs low in the sky, peeking from behind tree branches and thin gray clouds.

Kawase Hasui
Umagome no tsuki (Moon at Umagome), from the series Tôkyô nijûkei (Twenty Views of Tokyo)
color woodblock print on paper
( )
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection Fund

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The sign and two corner windows of a shop fill most of the frame. Large, single eyes in round or oval frames are painted on windows and sign. Seen through the glam, people fill the streets.

William Witt
The Eye, Lower East Side, New York, 1948
1948
gelatin silver print | paper
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Agah, Class of 1989 (BBA)
2017/2.297

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This small sculpture is made from crumpled paper and aluminum foil coated in resin. One end of the sculpture is blue, the other a brown-red, and the center is silver. Pieces of paper which look like newsprint are stuck to the bottom of the sculpture. The piece is deceptively light.

John A. Chamberlain
Untitled
paper, aluminum foil, glue, and painted resin
4 5/8 in x 7 1/2 in x 5 1/8 in (11.75 cm x 19.05 cm x 13.02 cm);8 7/16 in x 10 1/4 in x 10 1/4 in (21.43 cm x 26.04 cm x 26.04 cm)
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family

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